This Week’s Memory Verse: R is for…
“Rejoice with him, O heavens;
bow down to him, all gods.” -Deuteronomy 32:43

I wanted to share a little story with today’s verse. It has to do with this picture; not the water fight going on in front but the wooden statues surrounding the temple structure in the background. Here in Hawaii we are surrounded by the the culture of idol worship. They are systematically rebuilding the very temples that they tore down with their own hands less than 200 years ago. Literally yards from our house is a temple to a fish god, and between us and the heiau at the end of our beach where they offered human sacrifices is a compound dedicated to the rebuilding of these structures where you can watch with your own eyes men hard at work carving idols from wood. But this story is about the particular heiau in the picture which was the personal place of worship for Kamehameha the Great. Six months after his death the cruel kapu system of the Hawaiian people was overthrown by their rulers. The highest kahuna in the land, Hewahewa, was the first to set torch to the heiaus, saying “I knew the wooden images of deities, carved by our own hands, could not supply our wants…My thought has always been, there is one only great God, dwelling among the heavens.” This same priest knew a new and greater God was coming and even told the new king that the one true God would land on the very rock in Kailua Bay now known as “The Plymouth Rock of Hawaii.” And he was right! Missionaries from Boston carrying the gospel of Jesus Christ were at that very moment nearing Hawaiian shores. Upon their arrival another Hawaiian prophecy was fulfilled that the One True God would arrive in a small black box in a language they would not understand. Do you know that the very first thing those missionaries brought ashore was a black Bible box written in English! Within 20 years there were more Christians per capita in Hawaii than on the Mainland gathering together in what were the largest Christian churches in the world at that time, with a single church totaling 7000 members. The Light of World had truly shown on the Islands and heaven was indeed rejoicing!

Hymn of the the Week: “The Light of the World is Jesus” (Philip Bliss)

The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin; The Light of the world is Jesus;
Like sunshine at noon-day His glory shone in, The Light of the world is Jesus.

Come to the Light, ’tis shining for thee; Sweetly the Light has dawned upon me;
Once I was blind, but now I can see; The Light of the world is Jesus.

No darkness have we who in Jesus abide, The Light of the world is Jesus;
We walk in the Light when we follow our Guide, The Light of the world is Jesus.

Hele mai no, kou Lama no ne’i, Lama maika’i e ‘ike a’e ai,
Makapo au, ua ‘ike no na’e, Ka Lama one’i o Iesu.

No need of the sunlight in Heaven, we’re told, The Light of the world is Jesus;
The Lamb is the Light in the City of Gold, The Light of the world is Jesus.